Saturday, December 27, 2008

Akira Ifukube's music from Frankenstein Conquers The World. Also known under a variety of alternate titles; Frankenstein vs. The Giant Devil Fish, Frankenstein vs. Baragon (International: English title), Frankenstein Meets The Giant Devil Fish, Frankenstein And The Giant Lizard, Frankenstein vs. The Subterranean Monster, and Furankensuten to Baragon

Monday, December 22, 2008

Back when I was doing my Space Bastard site one of my favorite things to post was movie posters, of the macabre and horrific variety, usually tied together with some kind of theme. This is also a common practice over at Final Girl - in fact I had called this Macabre Movie Poster Monday until I looked at her site and saw she uses "Awesome Movie Poster Friday". Seemed disrespectful to my fellow Blogger user, stealing the Adjective/Movie Poster/Day of the Week format for a post title, so I've replaced Monday with Madness.

Moving on. Since I enjoy making my own DVD covers I have gathered a decent sized collection of movie poster imagery, I figured I'd throw some up here and see what happens.

Michael Powell's Peeping Tom

Lucio Fulci's The New York Ripper (duh)

Mario Bava's Kill Baby Kill

Riccardo Freda/Mario Bava's I, Vampiri

I've saved the strangest for last. This is actually a poster from Night of the Living Dead - as in George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. What a mongloid hand wearing press-on nails (with a bolt, uh, bolted into it, no less) has to do with anything at all I do not know. It has been years since I've actually watched NOTLD, maybe I've forgotten the mongloid hand.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Here is one of my favorites, Walter Rizatti's score from 1990: The Bronx Warriors - the world's only post-apocalyptic tap-dancing street gang film. Bronx Warriors was Directed by Enzo G. Castellari of Inglorious Bastards, and Warriors of the Wasteland fame and featured Mark Gregory and Enzo's go-to badass black guy Fred Williamson (which of these post-apocalyptic Italian movies was this dude not in?). Castellari also directed the sequel, which appeared on a Mystery Science Theater episode I posted a while back.

Request. I'm in the middle of watching the Pia Zadora movie Voyage of The Rock Aliens (which, incidentally, happens to be one of the most ridiculous movies I've ever seen). Does anyone out there have, and want to share the soundtrack? The movie is absurd, but the music is pretty entertaining, in a cheesy-Pia-Zadora- alien-musical-comedy kind of way.

Friday, December 05, 2008

I've been playing the hell out of this one since I got it about a week ago. This is the soundtrack from the 1981 Ladies and Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains. The film stars Diane Lane as Corrine Burns, founder and head songwriter for the fictional girl band The Stains. It chronicles the rise and very sudden fall in popularity of The Stains - A band not particularly high in talent, Corrine's rants and strange attire still manage to garner the band a small cult following of impressionable teenage girls (see above link, scroll down). The film also stars Ray Winstone as the singer of rival (and actually talented) band The Looters (which, apart from Winstone consists of Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols, and Paul Simenon of The Clash).

Random fact: This film features the first appearance of Queen of No-Budget Schlock Debbie Rochon.

This soundtrack was released with a "Download Only" option on Amazon, then it was almost immediately (within 24 hours or so) pulled from the site for some reason or another. I found it over on Cinemageddon, so credit goes out to the original uploader over there who was quick enough to get it before it disappeared.

There are several highlights on this album, from The Professionals by The Looters to the spiteful cover of The Professionals by The Stains. My personal favorite is a reggae number called Curfew. I don't even like Reggae, but I really love this one.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

The bizarre and hilarious 1984 slasher Fatal Games, written by Buñuel (Rafael, that is) and starring women with names like Teal and Spice. The description from the Media VHS cover:

"What is happening at the Falcon Academy of Athletes? One by one the young competitors for the 1984 Olympics are facing a race against death- at the hands of a javelin-hurling madman.

Is potential champion, Annie Rivers, fast enough to outrun the killer and stay alive? She must use every trick and every turn in the book to stay ahead in this deadly game. There can only be one winner in this contest. Only one will finish!"

Yes, you read that correctly, the killer's weapon of choice is a javelin. One of the most impractical weapons of all time - with a minimum length of 260 cm (8 ft 6.25 in) - you've got to admit it's an inventive choice.

Most of the film's running time is pretty standard slasher fare, but like fellow exercise themed slaughter picture Killer Workout Fatal Games goes totally batshit during the final act - making you forget the fairly routine first and second act. If you stick with this one you will be rewarded with a rousing and hysterical final 20 minutes that will leave you breathless and dumbfounded.

Note: The cover above was designed by me using a Blue Undergroundtemplate. The cover was made completely for the hell of it. As far as I knowthey have no plans of actually releasing Fatal Games.